A new approach to railway engineering over Christmas reduced passenger delays and saved the taxpayer-funded Network Rail hundreds of thousands of pounds.

These improvements were part of Network Rail's £150 million Christmas engineering programme and allowed some of the concerned railways to run at particularly high speeds of 125mph.

Over the past few years there have been significant improvements in track monitoring and installation practices, which has been a lengthy and complicated process.

The improved approaches now deliver benefits for passengers and the workforce who maintain and update the railway. Similarly, Network Rail and train operators benefit from these improvements alongside the millions of taxpayers who continue to help funding the railway.

What this means is that Network Rail can provide faster trains with reduced delays and journey times for its passengers and workers.

This also leads to less need for compensation to train operators as disruptions and delays are also reduced.